JPH0113272B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a pay program service system in a CATV system, and particularly to a billing procedure when a pay program is selected.

Conventional configurations and their problems In recent years, the practical use of CATV systems has been increasing mainly in the United States, and the functions associated with these systems have also tended to become more diverse.
In particular, pay program services in the CATV system will be described below.

How to service pay programs on CATV:
Broadly speaking, there are two types: one is a system that charges a fixed fee for viewing a certain period such as a monthly fee, and the other is a so-called pay-as-you-go charging system that charges a fee for viewing a paid program at the time the program is viewed. In the latter method, which charges a fee when a program is viewed, it is possible for people to mistakenly watch a paid program without intending to watch it, especially when a system provides both paid and free programs at the same time. There may be an inconvenience that if you select this option, you will be charged immediately. In order to avoid this inconvenience, it is conceivable to not charge the user immediately when a pay program is selected, but to charge the user after a period of free viewing time. With this method, you can actually watch the program being broadcast and check the content before deciding whether to watch it or not.
This is very convenient for the viewer. Also, for the operator side, the free viewing time also serves as a substitute for trailers, so it is possible to save a lot of effort in creating trailers for each program, which is a great benefit. However, in the conventional example using this method, when the free viewing time expired, the viewer was automatically charged for the program without any notification, so it was unclear to the viewer how much of the free viewing period was reached, and the paid program This was an inconvenience as those who watched the program without knowing it or who were too late to change the channel to another program were charged a fee.

Purpose of the Invention In order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention is designed to display a notification on the screen that the program is chargeable after the free viewing time has elapsed, and to notify the viewer of the selected program. In addition to clearly stating that there is a charge and that the free viewing time has passed,
The purpose is to make it impossible to watch the continuation of the program until you complete the paid viewing procedure.
In addition, to prevent charges due to incorrect operations, paid viewing procedures are disabled during free viewing hours.
It takes effect only after the paid notice is clearly stated.

Structure of the Invention When a pay program is selected on the terminal side, the terminal device allows the user to watch the pay program for free for a certain period of time, and then forcibly switches to a specific channel that announces the charge, so that the viewer can follow a specific procedure. This is a pay program service system of an interactive CATV system that switches to the pay program only when the program is completed.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the present invention is applied to a hotel will be described. Figure 1 shows the system configuration. Broadcasting center 100 and terminal devices 500 in each guest room are connected via transmission path 400 . Broadcasting center 100 and hotel center 200 are connected via modem 112 and cable 14. Furthermore, the broadcast center 100 and the front terminal 3
00 is connected via a cable 15 and a cable 22. The broadcast center 100 is a center computer system (hereinafter abbreviated as center CPU)
110, a group of video and audio information sources 120, a video and audio switching device 130, a head end 140, a modem 111, and a modem 112. Further, a signal from an antenna 150 installed outside the hotel for receiving commercial television broadcasting is input to the head end 140 via the cable 24.
Signals from external information sources 160 are also input to headend 140 via cable 25 . The center CPU 110 includes a computer, a display device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card reader device, and the like. The source group 120 includes an independent broadcasting studio device 121, a video tape recorder 122, a video disc player 123, a text/graphics generator 124, and the like. The source group 120 and the video/audio switching device 130 are controlled by the center CPU 110 via the cables 11 and 12. Various video and audio signals from the source group 120 are connected to the cable 21
The video/audio signal is input to the video/audio switching device 130 via the cable 23 and selected by the video/audio switching device 130 in response to a control signal from the center CPU 110 . In addition, the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 5
In order to perform bidirectional data transmission with 00, the center CPU 110 and the head end 140
They are connected via a modem 111 and a cable 13. The head end 140 has a function of modulating various input video and audio signals, a function of mixing this modulated video and audio signal with a modulated data signal from the center CPU 110, and a function of transmitting this mixed video and audio/data signal to the transmission path 400. Function to output to,
It has a function of outputting a modulated data signal sent from the terminal device 500 via the transmission line 400 to the center CPU 110 via the cable 13 and the modem 111.

The hotel center 200 is composed of a host CPU 210 and a modem 112. Host CPU2
10 includes a computer, a display device, a magnetic disk device, a floppy disk device, a magnetic tape device, a line printer device, a card reader device, and the like.

The front terminal 300 is for broadcasting communications from the front desk to each guest room.
It is composed of a front keyboard 310 and a broadcasting source 320 that exchange data with the CPU 110. Front keyboard 310 has cable 15
It is connected to the center CPU 110 via. The output signal from the broadcast source 320 is connected to the cable 22
The signal is input to the video/audio switching device 130 via.

The transmission line 400 is composed of a bidirectional trunk amplifier 410, a bidirectional branch amplifier 420, a bidirectional branch 430, a series unit 440, and a cable 41.

The terminal device 500 includes a terminal control device 510, a keypad 520 for channel selection, and a television receiver 530. The terminal control device 510 has the function of transmitting and receiving data with the center CPU 110, and converts the frequency of the video and audio signals sent via the transmission line 400 using a channel selection signal from the keypad 520, and outputs the converted signals to the television receiver 530. Has a function. The terminal control device 510 and the keypad 520 are connected by a cable 51. Further, the terminal control device 510 and the television receiver 530 are connected by a cable 52.

Furthermore, the block diagram of the terminal control device 510 is shown in the third section.
As shown in the figure. The terminal control device 510 is a distributor 51
1, an electronic tuner 512, a modem 513, a terminal control section 514, an address setting switch 515, a power relay 516, a power sensor 517, and a memory 518.
Communication control with the center CPU 110, channel switching of the television receiver 530 by controlling the electronic tuner 512, power on/off management of the television receiver by controlling the power relay 516, keypad 52
Key input detection from 0, keypad 520
Display output to LED display section 521, keypad 5
Charge processing for paid programs is performed in response to key input of 10.

Further, the top view of the keypad 520 of the terminal device is as shown in FIG. 2, and 521 is an LED for displaying channel information corresponding to the pressed key;
522 is the request key for paid channels, 5
23 is the request key for the hotel channel group, 5
24 is a request key for a group of television retransmission channels, 525 is a "pay" key for responding to charge approval when requesting a pay channel, 526 is a channel request key for system operation explanation, and 527 is a power switch.

Note that the receiver, keypad, and terminal control device may be integrated or separate.

In the memory 518, a charged flag as shown in FIG.
It is set from 14. Note that this flag is cleared by the initialization notification (Fig. 5) sent from the center when the customer checks in.

Next, the communication method of this embodiment will be explained.

First, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 500, one data channel is provided in addition to the video channel, and the downlink data signal from the center CPU 110 is modulated by the modem 111. After that, it is mixed with other video channel signals as the data channel signal at the head end 140,
The signal is transmitted to the terminal device 500 via the transmission path 400, and the terminal control device 510 demodulates the signal of the data channel and processes it as downlink data from the center CPU 110.

Next, the uplink data signal from the terminal device 500 is modulated by the terminal control device 510, put on the data channel, and transmitted to the head end 140 via the transmission path 400, where the other channel signal is transmitted. The separated data channel signal is transmitted to the modem 111, demodulated by the modem, and then sent to the center CPU 110.

Note that by using different carrier frequencies for uplink data and downlink data, bidirectional data transmission is possible with one transmission channel.

Next, as a transmission method, in order to enable data transmission with multiple terminals, a polling method using a multi-drop configuration is used, a unique number (address) is assigned to each terminal device, and command data with the address added is sent from the center CPU 110. The terminal controller 514 of each terminal device 500 sends the data sequentially to the pit serial in the format shown in FIG.
Bit serial downlink data is received from the CPU 110, all data is reassembled into the format shown in FIG. 5, and temporarily held in memory. With the data in the format shown in Figure 5, a maximum of 2 to ²⁴ terminals can be sent from the center.
2 ⁸ = 256 types of commands (with CH data) can be notified.

Next, the terminal control unit 514 compares the address part of the held data with its own address read from the address setting switch 515, and only if they match, determines that the data from the center is valid and uses the current command. It performs terminal processing accordingly, and sends uplink data from the terminal device 500 to the center CPU 110 in bit serial format in the format shown in FIG. 5 within a specified time. An example of commands from the center is shown in FIG.

The billing method of this embodiment will be explained below.
In this embodiment, as already explained, there are TV retransmission channels and hotel channels that can be viewed for free at any time by pressing a key, and paid channels that are charged only when the channel is viewed for the first time that day. The way to watch paid channels is as follows. That is, the viewer selects and presses the request key for the program he or she wishes to view from among the pay channel group request keys 522. Then, the signal is sent from the keypad 520 to the terminal control unit 514, and the terminal control unit 514 issues a command to the electronic tuner 512 to switch to the requested channel and at the same time sets the charged flag of the corresponding channel in the memory 518 in FIG. Check. If the channel has already been charged, the terminal control unit 514 does not perform the processing related to the charging procedure or the charging process, and allows viewing of the channel until another channel is requested. If the channel has not been charged yet, the terminal control unit 5
After a certain period of time (hereinafter referred to as trailer time) has elapsed, 14 instructs the electronic tuner 512 to switch to a channel that constantly broadcasts the telop as shown in FIG. This will notify you that there is a fee, and at the same time,
You will not be able to continue viewing unless you follow the procedure, that is, press the pay key 525. The length of the trailer time can be set to a fixed value on the terminal side, or it can be notified by the center at the start of the day's operation or check-in. In the latter case, the trailer time can be changed every day, allowing for highly flexible operation.
Paid key 5 only while the ticker in Figure 7 is displayed.
25 is accepted, and at this time, the paid key 52 is
When 5 is pressed, the terminal control unit 514 sets the charged flag of the corresponding channel in the memory 518, prevents processing related to the charging procedure from being performed from the next time, and then instructs the electronic tuner 512 to switch to the corresponding channel. Issue an instruction to switch again. The above procedure is shown in FIG.

The channel number requested during this time is stored in memory as shown in FIG.
The corresponding flag of the center notification flag shown in FIG. 4 is also set so that the center CPU 110 can be notified of the occurrence of charges at the next bowling.
The billing information may be notified to the center CPU 110 by setting the billing occurrence bit of the status in FIG. 5 and setting the corresponding channel code in the channel data field. Note that the center notification flag is cleared when the billing occurrence notification to the center CPU 110 is completed, and the billed flag is cleared, for example, when an initialization notification command sent from the center is received at the time of checking in the next customer. .

Effects of the Invention As described above, in the system of the present invention, when viewing a paid program, it is possible to actually watch the program for a while before deciding whether to watch it or not, and when the free viewing time has passed, the system always announces that the program will be paid. A ticker will be output on the screen, and only the person who presses the pay key at that time will be charged, so there will be no chance of being charged by mistake. Furthermore, even those who are watching the program without knowing that it is a paid program can be made aware that it is a paid program at that time. Furthermore, since the pay key is valid only when a ticker announcing the charge is being output, no charge will be made even if the key is pressed during free viewing. In addition to the above-mentioned benefits for viewers, operators no longer need to create trailers to show programs for free for a while, which saves them the expense and effort of creating trailers and reduces operating costs. can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 shows a bidirectional diagram in one embodiment of the present invention.
A block diagram of the pay program service system in the CATV system. Figure 2 is a plan view of the keypad of the terminal device. Figure 3 is a block diagram of the terminal control device in Figure 1. Figure 4 is the inside of the memory in Figure 3. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the communication data format between the center control device and the terminal device.
The figure shows an example of a command from the center control device, Figure 7 shows an example of a ticker announcing a charge, and Figure 8 is a flowchart showing the procedure and processing flow for viewing a pay program. . 100...broadcast center, 110...center
CPU, 400...transmission line, 500...terminal device,
510... terminal control device, 520... keypad, 530... television receiver.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. From a center control device, a terminal control device, a terminal device having a receiver and a keypad, and a transmission line connecting the center control device and the terminal control device.
A CATV network is formed, the center control device has a video and audio transmission device, the keypad has a function of generating a channel request signal, and the terminal control device has a tuner and a memory, and a terminal that controls the tuner and memory. A control unit is provided, and a specific procedure for viewing a pay program is valid only while the video output of a specific channel announcing a charge is being output to the receiver, and the pay program is selected by the keypad. At the time, the terminal device allows the user to view the pay program for free for a certain period of time, and then switches to a specific channel that announces the charge, and only when a specific procedure is performed, can the terminal device continue to switch to the pay program and allow viewing. A pay program service method in a two-way CATV system characterized by entering a billing state with the program.